This week at Centeno, the Christmas preparations continued in full force. We attended yet another Christmas tree decorating ceremony/party on Tuesday. For this celebration, the local comedy group La Media Docena performed for about an hour for all the students, staff and parents. They were absolutely hilarious! Half the reason I enjoyed the show so much was probably because I was proud I could understand all the jokes; there were a lot of local references and imitations of accents from all over Latin America, and I got it all! I probably couldn't repeat most of their jokes, but hey...I'm not very good at delivering jokes in English :) The one that I did remember is wicked corny...the two Ticos I told it to gave me that "are you kidding me?" face while I laughed my butt off. It doesn't translate at all, but if you speak Spanish, take a peek. Then go ahead and roll your eyes :)
P: ¿Cómo son parecidos los chanchos y los gemelos?
R: Por ser dos. (cerdos!) jajaja    

Chayotes

At home in our community, we were lucky enough to have visits from two of our co-ministers this week. On Thursday, Juan Gabriel joined us for dinner; on Friday, Katherine came over to give us a cooking lesson! She taught us to make two local favorites: Chancletas and Arroz con Leche. Chancletas (which actually means sandals) is stuffed chayote. Chayotes are local veggies that loos like big pears from the outside but are more like zucchini on the inside. They're pretty watery and don't have much flavor, but the sauce we used to stuff them was delicious! Arroz con leche is rice pudding, but a bit different than we eat at home. Here's a pretty standard recipe, though not exactly the one we followed. We made a gigantic pot, so we'll be eating it for days...yum!

Yesterday, Molly, Margie and I planted ourselves in front of the TV to watch the Holy War; that is BC vs. Notre Dame! Since we (strangely) get NBC in our house, and all of Notre Dame's games are on NBC (really?) we got to watch! It was a lot of fun, even though it turned out to be a bit of a boring game. Even though the Eagles lost, it was fun to see them play on TV. I also fondly remembered some of the more epic moments of BC vs. Notre Dame from when I was at BC, like when Emily snuck into Alumni Stadium without a ticket for the game, and when I road tripped to South Bend with my roommates only to breakdown in Cleveland.

One last picture...Jordan took this back in September when we went to the Día del niño celebration at Centeno. This is David, one of Jordan's favorite students from last year. He is about 15 years old, and I get to work with him once in a while when we do multi-level activities. He's a sweetheart!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 

I am so grateful to all of you who read along, and to all the people who have supported my years of service in so many ways. I am very blessed and privileged to be here. Although we won't be celebrating Thanksgiving traditionally this year since it's not a holiday in Costa Rica, we may be eating Turkey Day dinner Marta and her gringo husband Paul. I hope you have a great holiday and enjoy times with loved ones :)